Software to help towns and cities use street-planting to reduce citizens’ exposure to air pollution has been developed by researchers at the University of Birmingham.
Software to help towns and cities use street-planting to reduce citizens’ exposure to air pollution has been developed by researchers at the University of Birmingham.
Street planting, or ‘green infrastructure’, is an essential part of the urban realm, but there is a misconception that plants remove or ‘soak up’ a lot of pollution. Instead, planting at this scale primarily serves to redistribute pollution by changing air currents within streets and beside open roads.
Because of this, not only the position and amount of planting within a street, but also the layout and orientation of that street, are critical to its impacts on local air quality.
The software – the Green Infrastructure for Roadside Air Quality or ‘GI4RAQ’ Platform – has been designed by experts in the University of Birmingham’s Institute of Forest Research (BIFoR) and School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences, in partnership with practitioner organisations, including: Transport for London, Greater London Authority and Birmingham City Council. It is the result of three years’ collaboration, funded principally through three Innovation grants from the Natural Environment Research Council.
Read more at University of Birmingham
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